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The Rural Blog

After decades of suicide prevention funding and plan roll-outs, the number of self-inflicted deaths in the United States has only increased, with some rural states shouldering double the number of deaths compared to their urban counterparts.
As bird flu continues to spread among U.S. dairy cows, the disease has become more adaptable, with 14 human cases reported since March. "Both are worrying developments, say virologists, who fear that the country’s meager response to the virus is putting the entire world at risk of another pandemic.
This summer's extreme heat forced energy operators to rely on solar and wind electricity to keep the U.S. grid humming, even as Americans "cranked their air conditioning.
Water used by public utilities is subject to testing and contaminant limits, but well water from private wells is not. Around 43 million Americans drink, bathe and cook with water from private wells that have never been tested, which often leaves them unaware of what's in their water.
ESPN has long promoted itself as the “worldwide leader in sports.” You can forgive its audience if they don’t realize that ESPN has been losing millions of customers who have been “cutting the cord” from cable and satellite TV.  
Appalachian "diggers" have harvested wild ginseng roots for medicine or sale since the late 1700s, but recently, wild ginseng populations have shrunk and Appalachian diggers have been accused of overharvesting the plant and put under governmental scrutiny.
A drying Mississippi River is causing transportation headaches and delays for the third year running in what scientists suggest could be a long-lasting change.
Part of NASA began with Caltech students blowing up part of their dorm room while experimenting with rockets. From those extraordinary-sounding beginnings, the space agency has combined its data-gathering satellites with analysis powerhouses and offers "unimaginably huge" troves of data, some of which is open to the public and journalists, reports Joseph A. Davis for the Society of Environmental Journalists.  
In rural Maine, a county jail began giving a long-lasting form of buprenorphine to inmates with drug addictions before they left incarceration. The medicine, which curbs opioid cravings for 28 days, helps past inmates avoid "withdrawal, relapse and overdose — dangers that newly released prisoners confront nationwide.

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